Evergreen man sentenced to 8 years in prison as part of long-running ATF probe

View full sizeJerry Golden ... sentenced to 8 years in prison for gun crime.

MOBILE, Alabama -- An Evergreen man will go to prison for 8 years for selling a stolen gun to a confidential informant.

Jerry Golden’s lengthy criminal record qualified him as an “armed career criminal,” which meant he faced the maximum 10-year prison sentence. But U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose agreed to a recommendation by prosecutors to give him leniency for his help in prosecuting other defendants.

The case is part of a 2-year gun-and-drug investigation in Conecuh County that resulted in some 15 indictments. Golden, 33, admitted that he and another man sold a stolen Harrington and Richardson .22-caliber revolver and a .38-caliber Colt revolver to the informant on June 12, 2009. Golden admitted that he knew the informant had been convicted of a felony and, therefore, could not legally have firearms.

Golden’s co-defendant, Aundrea Daishon Murphy, is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has worked with the 35th Judicial Task Force investigating gun and drug cases in Conecuh. Authorities said the ATF spent about $25,000 making undercover weapons purchases.